Military Revolution and European Warfare

I. From roughly 1529 to 1648, Europe was immersed in warfare. Now, one should not think of these battles as constant and total. By 20th c. standards, wars were localized and minimally destructive. But by the standards of, say medieval warfare, the engagements of this period were fantastically destructive. Many people developed, in the course of these conflicts, a sense of a world spinning wildly out of control, that chaos and disorder had made life itself precarious. Out of this disorder--which extends to 1689 if we include the revolution and civil wars in Britain, into the early 1700s if we include the wars of Louis XIV.

II. The Scope of Warfare.

A. First of all, warfare in this period a combination of all sorts of factors:

1. Religious.
2. Social, e.g. peasant revolts, noble revolts (Fronde, 1648-53).
3. Power conflicts over domination within Europe.
4. Power conflicts over domination in the larger world.

In other words, a global conflict, and teasing out the specific dimensions not always possible.
B. 1529-55 first stage of religious warfare with Schmalkaldic League in 1529.
C. Spanish-French, or Valois-Habsburg, conflict, then again 1629-1659.
D. Hapsburg-Ottoman.
E. French Wars of Religion 1562-98, again 1621-29.
F. Dutch Revolt, or Eighty Years War beginning in 1572.
G. Conflict in the Americas.
H. Thirty Years War 1618-48.
I. English Civil War 1640-60, then Glorious Revolution, 1688-89.
J. French wars of Louis XIV--off and on from 1667, incl. ultimately War of Spanish Succession 1702-13.

III. Two fundamental processes emerge.

A. An intellectual engagement with politics and society, a powerful surge of creativity--Jean Bodin (1530-96), Montesquieu (1689-1755), Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), John Locke (1632-1704).
B. The rise of the modern state, an institution that could command loyalty, exercise authority. In the most rough, general terms, we get two different ways of creating the state:

1. Absolutism.
2. Republics.

IV. What is a "state"?

V. Now, a fundamental element--element, not the exclusive reason--for the immersion in violence was the Military Revolution of the early modern period.

A. Invention of powerful siege guns in the 15th century.
B. At same time, revolution in field warfare related to use of gunpowder.
C. All this accompanied by dramatic increase in army size.

VI. A naval revolution as well. From the New World discoveries of the 1490s to the rise of the railroad in the mid-nineteenth century, the golden age of shipping and seapower.

A. Adoption of gun on board.
B. Battle of Lepanto (7 October 1571) Ottoman Empire vs. Spanish-Venetian-Papal states led by Spanish Hapsburgs. 170,000 men on both sides. First major battle at sea decided by gun power.

VII. None of this made war more "civilized," if such a thing is even possible. English in late 1500s pursue deliberate policy of cruelty, massacring, for example, three thousand Spaniards forced ashore in Ireland in the defeat of the Armada in 1588, much as the Spanish did in the New World.

VIII. States and armies.

A. Armies had to be paid and supplied. More men, more expensive equipment, means costs go up significantly.
B. States go into debt, or sell off assets.
C. So expensive that governments often contract out the raising of an army.

IX. Conclusion: the intertwining of warfare, state, and society.